A Legion of Shining Souls
by ncfan
Summary: 50 truths about the kunoichi of Naruto. What women do when men claim to rule the world. My 100th fic!


Note: #'s 10, 17, 18, 19, 21, 25, 34, 39, 40, 45, 47, and 48 contain mentions of pairings, both onesided and otherwise. Update: I wrote this note before I changed the format; you'll have to find them yourself, but seeing as you are all (mostly ) intelligent people, you should do alright.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Few kunoichi remain full-time soldiers after becoming mothers. When Akasuna no Chiyo was told this, she looked the man in the eye and told him that if he intended on stopping her, he was going to need a poison that she had never dosed herself with before (a poison that didn't exist), and an extremely hard skull. Said shinobi backed off fairly quickly.

.

Shinobi who are born to the enemy of the village in which they are raised are passed over for many things: examinations for advanced intelligence, being given the genin exam early, being seriously considered for the Chunin exam the first time their eligible, etc. They also tend to fall off the wagon for promotions, the same way one who had mysteriously disappeared than reappeared in the presence of the enemy would be. That is the only reason Yuuhi Kurenai had to wait so long to be made a jonin.

.

Usually kunoichi who have a body considered to be provocative would use that to their full advantage. Tsunade, Terumi Mei and Ino do. Konan, on the other hand, wears the Akatsuki cloak not just because it is a symbol of her loyalty to Nagato, but also to conceal her body. She prefers being taken seriously over shinobi staring at her chest the whole time she fights them.

.

Sakura and Ino, if they were asked to fight each other, wouldn't be able to put their hearts into the fighting, because despite everything, they are still best friends.

.

When Tsunade and Anko get drunk together at night, they usually find a lot to talk about, none of it cheerful. And usually find Kurenai and Shizune trying to drag them home.

.

The only time Tsunade and Chiyo ever had an even somewhat civil conversation was when they talked about their apprentices, despite the fact that by the time they spoke of it Yashamaru had been dead for years.

.

Initially, when Shizune asked Ino if she would like her to train her in medical ninjutsu (since Sakura wasn't advanced enough to train her and Tsunade flat out refused to train the Yamanaka), it was out of pity. Soon, it was because Shizune knew Ino had an amazing amount of potential, and the older kunoichi started to feel angry with her mistress, because she knew Tsunade had seen it too.

Arguments about Ino were one of the components of Tsunade and Shizune's deteriorating relationship.

.

Few women make it into the ANBU. Tenten was the only kunoichi in her graduating class, the only kunoichi in five graduating classes in either direction, to be admitted into ANBU. She was partnered with another kunoichi in the ANBU named Uzuki Yugao, and the only other member of the Konoha 12 who joined the ANBU was Naruto.

Sometimes, when Tenten thought about that, she thought about how it had made the gulf between her and the other kunoichi even wider. Only Temari seemed to truly understand.

.

Karura had few female friends. Sayaka was dead before she could become someone to talk to, and the disparity in hers and Chiyo's ages made true, unblinking companionship well nigh impossible. The problem was, all the other kunoichi were so materialistic, and being the tomboyish desert rat that she was, Karura just wasn't accepted amongst them.

.

Despite that, Karura received the attention of the heirs of the two most powerful clans in the village. Takeo at first was only a friend, and for a time was someone she didn't want to see or even look at, and then he was a lover. She always loved Sasori, just not the way wanted.

Sometimes, Karura would lie awake at night and wonder if it was partly her own fault that Sasori had left the village.

.

Hinata didn't view Kurenai as her second mother; she didn't see her as her older sister. She saw her as her _friend_, the first real friend she ever had.

.

It was Tenten who was Hinata's older sister figure, from the day Tenten came to visit Hinata in the hospital after her match with Neji and told her that she knew what had happened and that if Neji ever attempted to try his "mind games" with Hinata again the Hyuuga prodigy would find his vocal cords ripped out and his rib cage rearranged to fit Tenten's preferences.

Hinata smiled through the pain in her chest, as Tenten's warm, comforting, callused fingers curled in her own.

.

Anko once spent six months in a psychiatric ward when she was fourteen. She had been given the mandatory bi-annual psychological evaluation required for all shinobi, and she had answered the questions "wrong" just to see what would happen. To this day, she avoids the now _four_ times a year (four times for her and no others) psychological evaluation at all costs.

.

Sakura, though she never liked to admit it, envied every kunoichi she ever met. Hinata for her gentleness, Ino for her confidence, Tenten for the respect she commanded from every shinobi around her, Temari for her sheer _strength_, Shizune for her determination, Kurenai for her skills with genjutsu, Tsunade for her able presence, and Chiyo for her wisdom and her ability to just hang on even when her life was only getting worse.

What she didn't know was that every kunoichi who ever met her envied her too.

.

Among the Sand, kunoichi are allowed to refuse seduction missions. Karura and Temari are the only ones who have ever refused every single one.

.

Every kunoichi who ever met Chiyo agreed that she was grade-A crazy. Shizune was the only one who ever admired her for it.

.

Despite not being born in the village, Kushina rose through the ranks quickly. A genin at ten, a chunin at thirteen, jonin at sixteen and ANBU captain at the tender age of eighteen, kunoichi who had been born in the village _dreamed_ about being like her. Kushina however, was devoted only to the task of protecting her adopted village. And to Minato.

.

Ino's attention towards men shifted through the years. At first, she was fixated on Sasuke. Then on Shikamaru, and _that_ crush died only when Shikamaru got married to Temari. Then on both of her teammate's brothers-in-law in turn. Finally, she came to a stunning realization.

She didn't need a man.

.

Temari thought the same thing, and it wasn't that she _needed_ Gaara or Kankuro or Shikamaru. It was just that she wanted them with her.

.

The only time Tenten ever saw Yugao laugh was during the infamous "snow globe incident" in the ANBU headquarters.

A few months after Tenten joined ANBU, around Christmastime someone started leaving snow globes on the high commander of the ANBU's desk. About the seventh time that happened, Tenten noticed Yugao shaking convulsively in her desk. When she asked Yugao what was the matter, she realized that Yugao was giggling behind her hand.

Meanwhile, in the next room, a snow globe exploded in the ANBU commander's unmasked face. No one ever allowed him to live it down.

.

Nii Yugito was only ever seriously courted by one fellow shinobi in the Kumo ranks. Kirabi had finally noticed that she wasn't a little girl anymore, and spent the next two weeks in a full body cast.

No one ever tried to ask Yugito out again. Not that anyone else had ever tried before.

.

One night, Tsunade's drinking outweighed her body's ability to process it. She woke up three days later in a hospital bed, Jiraiya standing over her and glowering, and a then thirteen year old Shizune threatening to remove her liver if she ever drank herself into a coma again.

.

Despite popular belief and their own slightly antagonistic relationship, Hanabi admired Tenten and Tenten thought that Hanabi wasn't such a bad kid, for a brat. It didn't stop her from swatting her around the training ground when Hanabi insulted Hinata or Neji.

.

Temari was, above all, lonely. She had her brothers, but she had to be a mother to them and she wasn't allowed to be a sister or just a friend. Apart from Kankuro, she had no friends as a child because of her relationship to Gaara. So when shy, timid Matsuri came along, Temari was all too happy to accept her into the fold.

.

When it came to every kunoichi who had ever fallen in love with someone from another village, especially a village with whom they were at war, Shizune and Sakura were the only ones who ever held any sympathy for them, and with good reason.

.

Inuzuka Hana was always considered the most civilized member of her clan. Since she got it from her father, she incessantly tried—and failed—to beat the civility out of herself.

.

Tenten and Temari started to become friends after the mission to bring Sasuke-teme home failed and Tenten realized that Temari wasn't half the bitch that she'd made herself out to be. Temari taught Tenten something about war and battle that day. "If I hadn't done it to you, someone else would have, and you wouldn't have been any better or worse off for it."

Their friendship was cemented the day Tenten saw the look on Temari's face while Gaara was being revived (her large group of Sand nin showed up halfway through the jutsu). Her green eyes were huge and empty in her unusually drained face, and Tenten had never felt so sorry for anyone in her life.

.

Temari held the younger girls when they cried.

.

No one ever expected Hanabi and Moegi to become friends, so everyone was surprised (and a little frightened) when the two started training together almost obsessively.

Konohamaru and Udon, oddly, seemed to think it was cause for great celebration.

.

Chiyo never expected to grow old, and part of her really didn't want to.

.

Mikoto felt shackled by her role as a housewife and mother. She loved her children, but a large part of herself yearned to be out in the wilderness, killing and fighting. She looked on in envy every time one of the kunoichi in her clan went out on a mission.

.

Nara Yoshino, on the other hand, didn't mind retiring after Shikamaru was born. There was more than one way to contribute to the shinobi community.

.

Ino's only real mother figure was Yoshino. Yoshino was the one who taught Ino how to throw kunai, how to throw a straight punch and how to rule a man. Shikamaru was terrified.

.

The only time Shikamaru was _more_ terrified was the day Yoshino and Temari met, and began plotting matrimony.

.

Shizune never liked wearing make up; she always felt like a clown, a suffocating clown, when she wore it. She didn't have the body for seduction (she had enough issues with feeling like she didn't fit right in her skin, without the whole make up issue to go with it), and she wasn't going to try to be something she wasn't. Tenten supported her wholeheartedly.

.

The day Chiyo saw Sakura fight was the day she wished the pink-haired little girl had been born in _her_ village. It was also the day she cut off the last link to her heart, and finally made a step to redeem herself.

.

Shizune taught Ino and Sakura the importance of determination in keeping patients alive. She taught them that the day they were too exhausted to utilize their chakra and Shizune nearly killed herself bringing Naruto back from the abyss.

.

Tsunade always felt nervous when she looked at the younger kunoichi. They all had the potential to self-destruct in their own ways. Sakura through her obsession with Sasuke, Hinata through her lack of self-confidence, Ino through her feelings of inadequacy and secret misery, Tenten through her obsessive determination, Temari through her façades and brittle masks.

However, she trusted them to do the right thing, and live on for the sake of their villages.

.

Tenten held little respect for the positions of motherhood. She'd seen what motherhood did to other kunoichi (made them dull and sedentary), and vowed that she would never have children. That was what made her so upset when Neji got her pregnant.

.

Karura didn't know what to think when Takeo asked her to marry him. So she laughed. When three weeks later Sasori blushingly and quietly admitted that he loved her, she stared. And stammered. And later cried.

.

Out of all the girls, Temari was the only one who never attempted to put on makeup except during a mission even once. The widely accepted reason was that makeup didn't last in the desert. The real reason was that Temari didn't feel like a woman when she wore makeup.

She only felt like a whore.

.

Kurenai always knew that Hinata was going to get killed in her endeavors to be stronger. She was working too hard, burning herself out, draining herself emotionally. The Hyuuga heiress was left an empty shell, and it would only be a matter of time before it happened. It didn't stop Kurenai from weeping when it finally happened.

.

Temari sacrificed her life to the village. It wasn't that she killed herself in its defense, it was that she lived only for the village in the end. It was sad, the way she scorned advances and burned bridges, going out on missions for days at a time, but she felt no sadness herself, because Temari would always do what was necessary for the village's survival.

.

Anko knew she wasn't crazy. She didn't care what the doctors told her during her extended stay in the psychiatric ward. She was obsessive, certainly somewhat suicidal, and definitely a little psychotic, but she wasn't crazy.

If only she could get everyone else to realize that.

.

Lee died in a battle with missing nin from Kiri. Tenten neither ate nor slept for five days. Then, she started imitating her father's behavior, drinking so much that she could barely walk straight. It took the combined forces of Neji, Hinata, Ino and Naruto to take her home. She spent three days recovering in Naruto's apartment; Neji didn't leave Naruto's apartment for three days.

.

It took nearly a year for reality to sink in for Ino after her father died. For a year, Ino expected him to come down the stairs each morning; for a year, she still said goodbye to him when she went off to work at the hospital. And for a year Ino seemed to be alright.

Then, reality kicked in, and Ino boarded herself up in her house for a month. Sakura and Shizune had to sneak in through a window.

.

Kushina never really gave a great deal of thought to death. She lived in the moment, always, and never thought about the future. She fought like a hell demon, because it suited her to and it made the enemy nervous. She figured that if she died, it would probably be in combat with the Rock.

Instead, Kushina died giving birth to her and Minato's baby, and couldn't accept it to be fact.

.

The beginning of the end came quietly for Sakura. It started with a few rumors, and border skirmishes. Then "quiet" became "violent". When Sasuke was dead, Sakura wanted nothing more than to die with him. And in a way, she did.

.

When Tsunade was killed, no one was surprised to find that Shizune had disappeared without a trace. Everyone knew where she was going, and no one expected to ever see her again.

No one ever did.

.

All the kunoichi had different views concerning death. But they all agreed on one thing.

They wouldn't let their comrades die before them.


End file.
